Acrylic Paint users: A question!

[justcrash]

How long does it take you guys to finish a project? I only ask because I work with mainly Trek stuff, and i see guys saying " I finished this over a weekend, etc". As far as I know, acrylics take 4 days to set up. Am I wrong with that? So it takes months for me to finish one project. What am I doing wrong? 4 days for the base coat, 4 days for any detailing to set up. 24 hours for any gloss (future) coats, etc. Just wondering what you fellas do? Several projects at once? Focus on one project?

[macfrank]

How long does it take you guys to finish a project? I only ask because I work with mainly Trek stuff, and i see guys saying " I finished this over a weekend, etc". As far as I know, acrylics take 4 days to set up. Am I wrong with that? So it takes months for me to finish one project. What am I doing wrong? 4 days for the base coat, 4 days for any detailing to set up. 24 hours for any gloss (future) coats, etc. Just wondering what you fellas do? :) Several projects at once? Focus on one project?

4 days?!!! What brands are you using? What are you thinning/mixing the acrylics with? The one complaint I hear most about acrylics is that they dry too quickly...
Testors Acryl dries within an hour or less (depending on humidity)and you can help it along with a warm (not hot) hair blower. Within a few more hours (less than 24, for sure) it's cured, and very, very difficult to remove.

[d_coombes]

Flat tamiya paints set up really fast... I've made models in a weekend....
Like the fine molds tie fighter... but then its matt black and grey.... no clear coats needed unless you weather it...

On this model ( made in the middle of a warm dry nor cal summer )
http://www.spacemodelmania.com/models/c ... tch_18.cfm I was literally putting on paint, drying it with a hair dryer and going on to the next stage.. which isn't very smart.... but you can get away with it... also the hair dryer will warp delicate details if you aren't careful.

Enamels and especially gloss enamels take much longer...

Dave

[d_coombes]

I thought I still had this.... :-)

http://david.coombes.home.mindspring.com/tie.htm

In find working on multiple projects is counter productive... if I just make a single model I stay focused and get things finished... as soon as I have several models on the go progress goes out the window...

My only exception is 28mm miniatures as I can do those in an evening so they make a convenient break.

Dave

[justcrash]

How long does it take you guys to finish a project? I only ask because I work with mainly Trek stuff, and i see guys saying " I finished this over a weekend, etc". As far as I know, acrylics take 4 days to set up. Am I wrong with that? So it takes months for me to finish one project. What am I doing wrong? 4 days for the base coat, 4 days for any detailing to set up. 24 hours for any gloss (future) coats, etc. Just wondering what you fellas do? Several projects at once? Focus on one project?

4 days?!!! What brands are you using? What are you thinning/mixing the acrylics with? The one complaint I hear most about acrylics is that they dry too quickly...
Testors Acryl dries within an hour or less (depending on humidity)and you can help it along with a warm (not hot) hair blower. Within a few more hours (less than 24, for sure) it's cured, and very, very difficult to remove.

Sorry, I am rather new to the hobby, compared to most of you fellas. How long should I wait to let my acrylics cure?

[macfrank]

Sorry, I am rather new to the hobby, compared to most of you fellas. :) How long should I wait to let my acrylics cure?

Don't be sorry. perfectly reasonable question.

It really depends on the type of acrylic paints you're using, but the typical hobby acrylics (Testors Acryl, Tamiya and Gunze Sangyo, for example) will be dry to the touch within an hour or less (depending on temperature, humidity and what you used as a thinner) and fully cured in a few hours more. You can speed the drying time up with a hair dryer set on low (not hot) and a few seconds of warm air. Also, you want to spray thin coats of paint and not a single thick coat that'll take longer to dry.

[justcrash]

Sorry, I am rather new to the hobby, compared to most of you fellas. How long should I wait to let my acrylics cure?

Don't be sorry. perfectly reasonable question.

It really depends on the type of acrylic paints you're using, but the typical hobby acrylics (Testors Acryl, Tamiya and Gunze Sangyo, for example) will be dry to the touch within an hour or less (depending on temperature, humidity and what you used as a thinner) and fully cured in a few hours more. You can speed the drying time up with a hair dryer set on low (not hot) and a few seconds of warm air. Also, you want to spray thin coats of paint and not a single thick coat that'll take longer to dry.

Ok, so I should do one thin coat, wait 30 minutes to an hour, repeat until base coat is done, wait 3 hours, do future coat (for example). Wait 3 hours, do detail painting, rinse, wash, repeat?

and thanks everyone, for your input.

[macfrank]

Ok, so I should do one thin coat, wait 30 minutes to an hour, repeat until base coat is done, wait 3 hours, do future coat (for example). Wait 3 hours, do detail painting, rinse, wash, repeat? :)

and thanks everyone, for your input. :)

Pretty much. Your mileage may vary. Will be lower in California.

If I'm building up a base coat, and spraying very thin coats of paint, I just zap each layer with the hair dryer for a few seconds, and apply the next coat. The previous layer will still be warm, which helps the next layer "cook".

One sugegstion - get a crappy kit (one that's cheap and you don't really care much for) to use as your paint practice subject. You can experiment with spraying patterns, thinning ratios, etc. without feeling nervous about ruining a good kit.

[TER-OR]

Yup, Crash, that's exactly how I find the Gunze and Tamiya.
Paint in the morning, Future in the afternoon, let that sit overnight.

I do paint in the basement, but there's a dehumidifier in the room.

[justcrash]

Ok, so I should do one thin coat, wait 30 minutes to an hour, repeat until base coat is done, wait 3 hours, do future coat (for example). Wait 3 hours, do detail painting, rinse, wash, repeat?

and thanks everyone, for your input.

Pretty much. Your mileage may vary. Will be lower in California.

If I'm building up a base coat, and spraying very thin coats of paint, I just zap each layer with the hair dryer for a few seconds, and apply the next coat. The previous layer will still be warm, which helps the next layer "cook".

One sugegstion - get a crappy kit (one that's cheap and you don't really care much for) to use as your paint practice subject. You can experiment with spraying patterns, thinning ratios, etc. without feeling nervous about ruining a good kit.

Cool! I have an old Seaquest DSV kit that I dropped while i was working on it, so it is my test surface now.

[justcrash]

Yup, Crash, that's exactly how I find the Gunze and Tamiya.
Paint in the morning, Future in the afternoon, let that sit overnight.

I do paint in the basement, but there's a dehumidifier in the room.

thanks Ter! how ya been, bud?

[TER-OR]

Busy, really busy.
I'm going to try to update my website to put links to various places with modeling articles I've done. And I need to do some writing for John, and so forth. Plus, work's busy.
But hey, it's warming up and about time for bicycling, so the world isn't so bad after all.

Except for that tree I've got to take down, and this furniture I've got to build, which just eats into modeling time.

[Kylwell]

My paint normally takes a day between coats.

Which means it can take as much as a week to paint up a model.

Something about 4 color camo that takes a while.

[justcrash]

Busy, really busy.
I'm going to try to update my website to put links to various places with modeling articles I've done. And I need to do some writing for John, and so forth. Plus, work's busy.
But hey, it's warming up and about time for bicycling, so the world isn't so bad after all.

Except for that tree I've got to take down, and this furniture I've got to build, which just eats into modeling time.

lol!

[justcrash]

So how many people put a gloss coat on their base coat to seal it, before they do the finer detail painting?

I usually do and I found my next set of colors has nothing to grip (takes more coats). However, the future allows me to (quickly) correct any mistakes I may make with some water and a toothpick.

What say you?

[TER-OR]

I put a very fine coat of Future - not a full glosscoat, but enough to protect the previous coat. It greatly helps with masking and damage resistance, as well.

[big-dog]

I found the future coat great to put the mucky weathering on. For that I used cheap hobby paints, Apple Barrel or Delta, thinned down with water to real thin. Work on one area at a time, if I didn't like the way it was going it was really easy to wash/wipe clean. A flat coat would make removing stuff a lot harder.

[admiralcag]

Yup, Crash, that's exactly how I find the Gunze and Tamiya.
Paint in the morning, Future in the afternoon, let that sit overnight.

I do paint in the basement, but there's a dehumidifier in the room.

Do you ever have a problem with the Future coat cracking? I used essentially your process on a Hasegawa F-16. When I weathered it, I had cracks all over the place.

Vern

[TER-OR]

I found problems putting the Future over a gloss coat paint. That's the only time I get those cracks. I try to use semi-gloss when I can, and am now experimenting with putting a bit of Flat Base in the gloss paint, just to give it some coverage bite for the future.

If the crackles are fine enough, they may disappear beneath a dullcoat.

I've heard others with the Gloss/Gloss interaction problem.

[admiralcag]

I found problems putting the Future over a gloss coat paint. That's the only time I get those cracks. I try to use semi-gloss when I can, and am now experimenting with putting a bit of Flat Base in the gloss paint, just to give it some coverage bite for the future.

If the crackles are fine enough, they may disappear beneath a dullcoat.

I've heard others with the Gloss/Gloss interaction problem.

IIRC, I put the Future over Gunze paint. I may not have let it cure thoroughly. Oh, well.

Thanks for the tip!

Vern

[Kekker]

Yeah, had the same problem. Clearcoated over Gunze that hadn't dried enough, and got a cool alligator skin-like effect. Sadly, it was on my Tiger Meet F-16 with the Daco decal set. I think the clearcoat shrank (shrunk?) and caused the skin on the paint underneath it to slip. Took several more coats of clear to get it somewhat more evened out.

Always let it cure before the clearcoat!

Kev